Stefanie Strobel told CBS2’s Bobby Kaple that she was taking her normal stroll along the beach, in which she likes to pick up trash to keep the coast clean, when she came upon an object that caught her eye.

“I saw a bottle out in the ocean, so I followed it back to the beach and picked it up off the sand,” she said.

Inside the bottle were several messages in German, seemingly handwritten by different people.

“I really did think it was just trash, but when I opened it up and I saw there was not one, but eight messages inside, that was really exciting,” said Strobel.

Strobel then went to the Surf City Hostel, where there happened to be three German girls who were on vacation and eager to help translate the papers.

The contents of the notes, which were written on yellow paper with the header “Our Wishes” in German, were all over the map—from wishing someone health, grandchildren and success at Bingo to someone’s hope that there be no more radioactive accidents.

Whoever the authors are, Strobel said she wants them to know she got their message.

“I would love to find them and let them know that people are searching for them, and they also want to wish them a happy 60th birthday,” she said.